Cars - Rolling stock

[tootnkumin]

Nice looking loads. I have several of those Intermountain flat cars too, I like the wood decking, the only grumble (2 actually) is 1: the grain in the center planking is across the boards instead of running longitudinally with them and shows once stained or colored. 2: I wish they were all supplied loose for the modeller to attach after weathering the car and them. The tiedown grooves are usually pretty rusty and bare of paint and would be so much easier to do without the decking in place.

I also have some of MTH's similar 60' HTTX flats, and they are a superior product to IM's, but have plastic boards that also are separate to the car's construction, also unfortunately glued on. I really did a hunt for them when I was after them, cleaned out what I could find and that the dealers would post to me. They were a 2008 run, but haven't seen them do any since.

 

[new guy]

I haunt the "craft" stores for scenery items. Many times you can find "scale" lumber in three foot chunks, for CHEAP! They cater to the diorama crowd and we do the same and also run trains! The SAME stuff they market to us in tiny bottles and TINY amounts at yooge prices you can get it in bulk for cheap at Michaels or Dots or any of those kind of places.

I'm gratified to see I'm not alone in running a mishmash of whatever the heck takes my fancy that I can afford, behind whatever will pull it! I have awesome wicked proto walthers stuff and crappy old tyco stuff and steam and diesel. Kits I have not made yet and frankensteins of various combinations, some run, some will, some day. It's all good.

 

[riogrande]

If you can build realistic lumber loads cheap, that's possible but not always easy. The rub is getting materials and making them look like stacks of 2x4's or other smaller scale dimensional lumber that is typical of lumber going to lumber yards or for construction. So far most efforts I've seen didn't satisfy me, so when I saw the RS Laserkits come up for sale and looked closer to what I was after in the photo's, I bought a couple sets. They are not 2x4 lumber but look more like 4x4 or 6x6 beams - which are not as common but certainly good for a flat car and once I get cribbing in and strapping, it should look fairly realistic for a 1970's load.

One quicky technique I've seen is to buy laminated wood at lumber stores and cut it into 4' x 8' or 4'x12' or 4'x16' foot stacks, and then built a load out of those. Being the wood is laminated, it looks like layers of lumber, so that's another home-made method that comes out reasonably well when viewed in a passing train; not so much if staged on a siding at a lumber yard.